New York City, but moviemakers use it as a
New York look-alike: More than a hundred
films and TV productions a year are rolling in
the streets, their klieg lights vying for attention
with the traffic signals.
Sometimes the streets are missing only dirt
and squalor. City film commissioner Naish
McHugh tells a tale of Sonny Grosso, producer
of the cop-show television series Night Heat of
a few years ago: "Sonny looked around the set
here and said, 'Gee, this is supposed to be New
York. This place looks too clean. You'd better
get some garbage out here.' So plastic bags and
cans were strewn about.
"They were shooting and then broke for
lunch. It was a side street; they didn't leave
anybody there. When they came back, public
works had cleaned the entire street, taken
everything. Sonny got on the phone to City
Hall, screaming, 'We want our set back!' "
TORONTO AND ONTARIO fought against
the Free Trade Agreement, in part
because they saw the empty cans and
plastic bags across the border. But the
border seems too long, the links too strong for
Canada to hide. America's biggest trading
partner is Canada. Its trade with Ontario
alone exceeds its trade with Japan. The
nations have been moving toward an open
market since the 1800s. Four-fifths of trade
was free already.
Canada's acrimonious 1988 election hung
on that remaining fifth. Prime Minister Mul
roney's Conservatives sought reelection and a
mandate for the FTA. Both opposition parties
were bitterly opposed. Free Trade proponents
took out newspaper ads to allay fears. For
Americans the issue was of interest; for Cana
dians it was a crisis.
From his office on the 48th floor Brascan
Limited President Trevor Eyton swept his
hand across the Toronto skyline, past the
gleaming copper towers and the yacht club
slips on Lake Ontario, and declared that it
was good.
With Labatt's Brewery and the Toronto
Blue Jays under its umbrella, Brascan is one of
the nation's largest companies. "The message
of the business community was, 'You don't
have the luxury to keep the status quo,' "
Eyton reasoned.
"The world is changing
Seeking a door to the U. S. market eased open
by the FTA, Dominion Textile Inc. ofMon
treal-represented by Gary Wilson, center
celebrates a merger of its Caldwell towel
division with New York City's C. S. Brooks
Corporation, headed by C. S. Johnson, left.
Common Ground, Different Dreams
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